Ax88u Slow WAN speed

[Helder Santos]

I have AX88U + AX88U using AIMesh wired.
Both on 388.2_2

Since the update I see slow downs from the WAN speed

My ISP speedtest from the modem is 1.60Gbps down and 960Mbps up

Speedtest results from AX88u
Without Skynet or QOS Speedtest: 746Mbps/725Mbps

With QOS only: 361Mbps/570Mbps

With Skynet only: 365Mbps/450Mbps

With both QOS & Skynet: 349Mbps/384Mbps

Test done via wired PC -> AX88u -> ISP mode

Does'nt seem to be normal behavior.

Thanks

 

[L&LD]

With those ISP paid-for speeds, you don't need QoS. Don't play with that (those speeds are expected when you do have it enabled).

I haven't noticed a slowdown when using Skynet, but I only have 1Gbps symmetrical Fibre.

If you've been toggling options on/off randomly and/or haven't done a full reset on the current firmware you're running, it may be worthwhile to do a full reset, and minimally and manually configure the router to secure it and connect to your ISP.

Another (remote) possibility is the USB key you're using. Are you using a 'key', or an external USB enclosure with an SSD inside (256GB or larger)? If using the former, it may be slowing you down (because it is most likely ready to die with the router's demands).

 

[Helder Santos]

Ok QOS will stay disabled! I was testing the QOS for Media Streaming.
But I quickly realized that it was slowing down everything.

I did a full reset about two months ago. But toggling a few times lately some options. I'll probably plan a full reset in the next few days.

Another (remote) possibility is the USB key you're using. Are you using a 'key', or an external USB enclosure with an SSD inside (256GB or larger)? If using the former, it may be slowing you down (because it is most likely ready to die with the router's demands).

I'm using an USB Key. 128GB size... bought brand new two months ago when I first reset the unit.
So what is better an usb Key or an usb drive?

I haven't noticed a slowdown when using Skynet, but I only have 1Gbps symmetrical Fibre.

Should I better use an external server box like a raspberryPi with Diversion or other software instead of slowing down the whole router?



Thanks for your time and comments on this

 

[L&LD]

The suggested option for using a USB drive with Asus routers (for a few years now) is using something like a UGreen external enclosure with an SSD (I suggest 256GB and larger).

I don't use a Pi, like I said, I don't see slowdowns when using Skynet on a router.

 

[Helder Santos]

(I suggest 256GB and larger).

I thought 128gb would be enough. Curious to know why bigger size?

 

[L&LD]

Better quality SSD (controller and nand) with bigger sizes.

The cost difference is negligible at these tiny sizes, but otherwise, the 128GB SSDs would be more than big enough.

 

[aex.perez]

Just curious as I too had a similar slowdown with my AX88. Like you I started playing around with addons, though never need QoS with 1Gb fiber.

Like you got incremental improvement by turning off certain scripts but never what my normal is ~930Mbps in both directions. When it noticed my Speedtest results were 1/2 what they were and I could correlate it to a crash.

Then without changing a thing, power cycled the router and got back to my normal as even a reboot wouldn’t get the job done.

If this is close to what’s happening with your router then it might not be the USB stick.

I have this slow down as well with an AX88u and have captured it in the log as well as it’s impact on Speedtest results

Jump over to this: and see if it matches up with what you’re experiencing:

Skynet / dnsmasq / Flowcache / Merlin 388 releases

Before anyone says anything I don't care what the Speedtest speed results are, I use them to monitor consistency, quality At this point my Speedtests are within what I consider my normal: between 900 to 930 Mbps every 30m - both up and down Been running for weeks all good and even te occasional...

www.snbforums.com

 

[L&LD]

An electrical reset (pull the power plug from both the router and the wall AC for a few minutes, while leaving the router's power button 'on'), may also help here.

Are you using Ports 5-8? If so, don't. Remove those cables, perform a full GUI reboot, then test again. If that is the issue, get yourself a $30 switch and ignore those ports on the router forevermore.

 

[Helder Santos]

Are you using Ports 5-8? If so, don't. Remove those cables, perform a full GUI reboot, then test again. If that is the issue, get yourself a $30 switch and ignore those ports on the router forevermore.

Yes I'm using them. But it's not the first time I read to get a switch to do the job instead.
I there a 5 or 8 ports swicth that is recommended? Since I'll get a new switch... I would like to set LAG

 

[L&LD]

Why do you think you need LAG?

Just plug the switch below to Ports 1-4 and you're running at wired speeds. Without the gremlins, the bridged 2x 5port switches within the router may be adding to your network woes.

Netgear ProSAFE GS308 8-Port Gigabit Switch

 

[Helder Santos]

Why do you think you need LAG?

I have two servers for streaming. Both have two ethernet ports. I usually set the ports in bond with balance-rr.
But was looking to set the bond with 802.3ad or minimal Static link aggregation.

Was looking into this switch: Trendnet TEG-S80ES for Static Link Aggregation

 

[L&LD]

And you do this because you exceed the limits of a single port when streaming?

 

[Helder Santos]

No exceed of the limits. Just been doing this to provide load balancing and fault tolerance.
But someone told me that 802.3ad would be better to avoids TCP retransmissions.
Also with a smart switch I could do vlan to separate the streams from the rest of the data.

 

[Tech9]

Just been doing this to provide load balancing and fault tolerance.

Your home router has some firmware feature mostly good for advertisement purposes. Link Aggregation is one of them, Dual WAN is another. There is more. Keep the configuration simple and your life will be better. Ask @aex.perez for practical advice.

 

[Helder Santos]

Your home router has some firmware feature mostly good for advertisement purposes. Link Aggregation is one of them, Dual WAN is another. There is more. Keep the configuration simple and your life will be better. Ask @aex.perez for practical advice.

I was aware of the Dual WAN, but not about the Link Aggregation directly on the router.

Yes the plan is to keep it simple... but seems that I was not well guided initially. Time to back back to square one

 

[aex.perez]

Your home router has some firmware feature mostly good for advertisement purposes. Link Aggregation is one of them, Dual WAN is another. There is more. Keep the configuration simple and your life will be better. Ask @aex.perez for practical advice.

A little under the weather

But I do use 802.3ad on the AX88u and the WD NAS and have been for years with no issues, even did jumbo frames for awhile. I’ve never have had any issues with ports 5-8. Also use the switches in the AX86s (nodes) never an issue with any of it.

Except for Skynet, the scripts/addons I use are passive vs active(observing the data vs in its path) and with that I average 920Mbps in both directions (no TrendMicro in my case) and up until 388, the only time it went down or had issues with slow downs that only a power cycle could fix (temporarily) is with the 388 releases…

Your mileage will vary

 

[Tech9]

But I do use 802.3ad on the AX88u and the WD NAS

Have you tested it with 2 parallel upload/download transfers to your NAS exceeding Gigabit aggregate traffic?

 

[aex.perez]

No, I don’t drive it that hard (the TV’s can’t drive it that hard when streaming content) that said if you’re driving it that hard, take it off the router and get a smart switch with VLAN and 802.3ad support, multi Gb switch…

Not saying you can’t exceed a 1Gb port, but there’s overhead preventing anywhere near 2x. You’re better off with faster port (2.5 or 5 or even 10Gb) if speed is what you’re after. Oh and you probably need to think about how you have the disk drives (even if SSD’s) setup (stripe/RAID) as well (random and sequential access performance are very different)

Think of it more for availability, contention avoidance with a slight speed gain bonus…

(I’m off for a few days, nasty bug)

 

[Tech9]

I mean... does it work for you or you just have it set this way?

By the way, I have Asuswrt-Merlin 386.7_2 running on my experimental AX86U at the moment.

 

[drinkingbird]

No exceed of the limits. Just been doing this to provide load balancing and fault tolerance.
But someone told me that 802.3ad would be better to avoids TCP retransmissions.
Also with a smart switch I could do vlan to separate the streams from the rest of the data.

If you really want LAG the TP-Link TL-SG108E is cheap and handles 2 LAG groups of 2-4 ports each. Note it is static LAG, not LACP, but most things support static LAG. If you need LACP probably need to pay a bit more for a higher end switch.